El Chapo Wants A Priest Who Speaks Spanish

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

He is depressed, he hallucinates believing that he listens to a turned off radio, he feels alone … these are some of the ills that have afflicted Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán Loera since he arrived at the federal prison in Manhattan, New York, where he has been locked up waiting for judgment.

The dangerous drug trafficker extradited by Mexico in January and famous for his escapes remains confined amid stringent security measures, which his lawyers find excessive.

In a new letter of complaint sent Monday, attorneys Michelle Gelernt, Michael Schneider and Edward Zas denounce that El Chapo "lives in draconian conditions" under which he cannot shake hands with his defenders, cannot buy bottled water and does not distinguish whether it is day or night.

In the document they demand that their client be granted even the visit of a priest who speaks Spanish, which has been denied until now.

"Any interaction he has had with 'religious personnel' has been through pantomime or through the assistance of a Spanish-speaking guard," said the letter revealed by the Daily News newspaper.

The conditions in which El Chapo lives are also said to be so extreme that not even the prisoners of the famous federal prison Supermax in Colorado suffer from them.

Things are so bad, they note, that they have asked federal judge Brian Cogan to allow Amnesty International representatives to visit the prison to verify the conditions in which the head of the Sinaloa cartel lives.

Lawyers have repeatedly requested a relaxation of the rules that regulate Chapo's life behind bars so that, among other things, he can receive the visit of his wife, Emma Coronel.

So far, the federal authorities have maintained an immovable stance and have not agreed to the changes.